Myths and fairytales are our rich heritage; a veritable feast of ancient wisdom passed down through the ages in the memorable form of stories. While almost any story will have deep meaning to some individuals, some of the time, this book presents a collection of stories that these maestros of dramatherapy have found to have a powerful effect almost without fail. These are the 'golden' stories of Sesame. The authors introduce the Sesame approach and describe the advantages of using myth and fairy tale as a central theme in a therapy session. The Sesame approach has been found to produce striking results with myriad client groups, including individuals with learning difficulties, offenders in psychiatric settings and children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and adults in mental health care. Dramatherapy with Myth and Fairytale provides a treasure trove of timeless stories that can be adapted and applied to the needs of different client groups and the style of each therapist. It also includes introductory exercises, warm-ups and scene setting suggestions. The book will be an invaluable source of inspiration for dramatherapists and dramatherapy students, creative arts therapists, storytellers, psychotherapists, Jungian psychoanalysts, teachers and play therapists.
Somewhere hidden in the depths of each story lies a treasure waiting to be discovered... This creative arts therapies approach uses myth and fairy tale to explore personal challenges. Clients begin by choosing a myth or fairy tale character they feel drawn to, but don't know why. They and their chosen character then embark on a guided creative journey that leads them to discover hidden, unconscious, aspects of themselves. The process is holistic, using all the arts. In addition to explaining the theoretical background of this approach, the book provides detailed step-by-step instructions for readers to follow for their own personal exploration, including specific creative exercises at each stage, and guidelines for using the approach with clients. Also included are clinical case vignettes, reflections from people who have experienced the process, and the authors own personal journey. Whether you are a creative arts therapist seeking to expand your practice, or a health professional searching for a new, creative way of working with clients, The Story Within is an exciting new resource.
Routledge International Handbook of Dramatherapy is the first book of its kind to bring together leading professionals and academics from around the world to discuss their practice from a truly international perspective. Dramatherapy has developed as a profession during the latter half of the twentieth century. Now, we are beginning to see its universal reach across the globe in a range of different and diverse approaches. From Australia, to Korea to the Middle East and Africa through Europe and into North & South America dramatherapists are developing a range of working practices using the curative power of drama within a therapeutic context to work with diverse and wide ranging populations. Using traditional texts in the Indian sub-continent, healing performances in the Cameroon, supporting conflict in Israel and Palestine, through traditional Comedic theatre in Italy, to adolescents in schools and adults with mental ill health, this handbook covers a range of topics that shows the breadth, depth and strength of dramatherapy as a developing and maturing profession. It is divided into four main sections that look at the current international: Developments in dramatherapy Theoretical approaches Specific practice New and innovative approaches Offering insights on embodiment, shamanism, anthropology and cognitive approaches coupled with a range of creative, theatrical and therapeutic methods, this ground breaking book is the first congruent analysis of the profession. It will appeal to a wide and diverse international community of educators, academics, practitioners, students, training schools and professionals within the arts, arts education and arts therapies communities. Additionally it will be of benefit to teachers and departments in charge of pastoral and social care within schools and colleges.
This unique text is both an accessible introduction and specialist review of contemporary dramatherapy practice today. The collected chapters introduce critical and cohesive perspectives on dramatherapy as it is being practiced, developed and advanced in diverse contexts, and also investigate the connections between the discipline of dramatherapy both as an allied health profession, a form of psychotherapy and a traditional form of theatre and healing. In so doing, the volume unpicks the relationship between drama and therapy, exploring some of its key philosophies and practices, and examining its efficacy. Edited by two experienced lecturers and dramatherapists, the book stands as a timely and crucial resource for students and practitioners alike in this growing field. It is essential reading for students on dramatherapy, arts therapy and applied theatre degree programmes, and useful background reading for students of theatre and performance, counselling and psychotherapy.
Using extensive examples from practice with a range of client groups, Dramatherapy and Autism confronts the assumption that people with autism are not able to function within the metaphorical realms of the imagination and creativity. It demonstrates that not only are people who function along the spectrum capable of engaging in creative exploration, but that through encountering these processes in the clinical context of dramatherapy, changes can be made that are life enhancing. Bringing in cutting-edge research and practice on dramatherapy, Dramatherapy and Autism aims to contribute to developing the theory and practice of creative arts therapies interventions with clients with autism. The book is part of the Dramatherapy: approaches, relationships, critical ideas series, in which leading practitioners and researchers in the field develop the knowledge base of this unique discipline, whilst contextualising and acknowledging its relationship with other arts and therapeutic practices. Dramatherapy and Autism will be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers, such as dramatherapists in practice and training, arts practitioners and academic researchers engaged in multidisciplinary enquiry.
Dramatherapy and Learning Disabilities demonstrates the power of dramatherapy to help clients with learning disabilities, addressing current research, evidencebased work, and methods in the dramatherapy and learning disabilities fields. Featuring contribution from 19 dramatherapists with a range of clients of all ages who have moderate to severe learning disabilities, this book presents ways in which dramatherapists are innovating new approaches to their work in the field. The authors demonstrate their expertise but also acknowledge their limitations. They explore what it is like to work in multidisciplinary teams and with parents and carers of children and adults with learning disabilities. Each chapter provides detailed vignettes of client/therapist experience and enables the reader to gain insight into therapists’ thinking and the process that guides their clinical judgement. Structured accounts of sessions and outcomes, tracking clients’ progress and the use of evaluation tools evidence the effectivity of dramatherapy and creative therapies’ practice. This book will be a significant resource for trainee dramatherapists, arts therapists and professionals interested in incorporating creative methods into their practice. It also provides examples of burgeoning arts therapies research within the field and lays the foundations for future projects.
Space, Place and Dramatherapy: International Perspectives provides radical, critical and practical insights into the relevance and significance of space and place in dramatherapy practice. Bringing together an international breadth of contributors, the chapters of this book reveal extensive reflections on the many spaces in which dramatherapists and their clients work and offer research implications for those wishing to critically examine their own symbolic or structural spaces in dramatherapy practice. Chapters consider space and place from many angles: ritual and symbolic spaces; transitional and play spaces; educational and interpersonal spaces; and scenographic and architectural spaces. The book examines the impact of space on human (and more-than-human) relationships, dramatherapy practice and processes and mental health, offering new avenues of research and critical enquiry. This volume is the first of its kind to rigorously elucidate the importance of space within the field of dramatherapy and is essential reading for academics, scholars and postgraduate students of dramatherapy as well as practicing dramatherapists and professionals within the wider domains of arts and health.
In our distant childhood, mothers and grandmothers told us fairy tales, not suspecting, perhaps, that by doing so they used one of the most effective methods of psychological correction – fairy-tale therapy. A fairy tale is a means of introducing a child to the world of human destinies, to history; this is the «golden key» to changing the environment, its creative, constructive transformation. The child half lives in an imaginary, unreal world, and not just lives, but actively acts in it, rebuilding it and himself. It is from this treasury that he draws information about the reality that he does not yet know, the features of the future, about which he still does not know how to think [12]. Surprisingly simple, but at the same time instructive stories were breathtaking, plunging the world of dragons, woodpeckers, brownies, beautiful princesses and evil witches. Are these simple stories simple, as it seems at first glance? Is it just an entertainment tool or a universal educational program that helps children to settle in this difficult world? The process of fairy tale therapy allows the child to actualize and realize his problems, as well as to see different ways to solve them [12, p. 84]. A fairy tale metaphor, due to its inherent special properties, turns out to be a way of building mutual understanding between children, an attitude towards oneself as an individual. In fairy tales you can find a complete list of human problems and ways to solve them. Fairy stories contain information about the dynamics of life processes. Therefore, a fairy tale can give a symbolic warning about how the situation will develop, which is important in corrective work [118, p. 35]. K.I.Chukovsky believed that the purpose of a fairy tale «is to educate a child in humanity – this marvelous ability to worry about other people's misfortunes, to rejoice in the joys of another, to experience someone else's fate as one's own. After all, a fairy tale improves, enriches and humanizes the child's psyche, since a child listening to a fairy tale feels like an active participant in it and always identifies with those of its characters who fight for justice, goodness, and freedom». A fairy tale is a means of working with the inner world of a child, surprising in terms of the strength of its psychological impact, a powerful tool for development. It is the psychological content of fairy tales, the symbolic reflection of psychological phenomena that make folk tales an indispensable tool for influencing a person [12]. A school psychologist constantly asks himself two questions: «What? » and «How?». In the sense that every day, in the case of providing psychological assistance to a child, a specialist tries to figure out what is actually happening and how to help a small client overcome the difficulties that have arisen. Searching for the answer to the question «what? » are carried out with the help of various methods of psychodiagnostics, observation, conversations with parents and teachers, etc. But when the answer to the first question becomes more or less clear, the question «how? » arises with all its cast-iron simplicity and inaccessibility. At this stage, many school psychologists, unfortunately, give in, because it is necessary to move from diagnostics to full of surprises and risk, the path of psychocorrection and psychotherapy. The enrichment of practical psychology with new means of effective work with children, provided, in particular, by such a direction as fairy tale therapy, is a gratifying fact of the last decade. Now to the notorious question «how? » found one of the beautiful and effective answers. The developing and psychotherapeutic potential of fairy tales, for all its obviousness, was not used enough by the practical psychology of education. But fairy tale therapy is effective in working not only with preschoolers or younger students, but also with teenagers and high school students. Moreover, there are psychotherapeutic fairy tales for teachers. Even a simple reading of fairy tales (especially specially created ones) gives an amazing effect and helps a person overcome various life difficulties. Fairy tales are important to child development, both educationally and psychologically, and have been shown to be therapeutically efficacious. O.Breusenko-Kuznetsov, G.Nyzhnyk, D.Sokolov, L.Terletska, N.Tsybulya and others are developing the method of fairy tale therapy in Ukraine. Studies by L.S. Vygotsky, O.V. Zaporozhets, N.S. Karpinskaya showed that a fairy tale is vital to a child, and it is a means for him to know the world around him and himself. In recent literature, fairy tales are often the object the study attracts the attention of representatives of various schools and branches of science, in particular folklorists, literary critics, psychologists, etc. A fairy tale needs a thorough new look using effective tools. In in this regard, the study of issues related to the analysis of fairy tales as a psycho-corrective method of psychological assistance to preschoolers in terms of psychological and pedagogical aspects is appropriate. The research of the above experts is about the possibility use of the method of fairy tale therapy not only in psychological, but also in pedagogical practice for didactic and developmental purposes. As for application of this method in the professional activities of a psychologist, the research on this subject is just beginning to appear on the pages scientific publications. Yes, the possibility and feasibility of using fairy tale therapy in socio-pedagogical practice indicate S. Savchenko, O. Ivanovska, N. Shkarin and others, who consider the fairy tale as a wonderful social pedagogical means of socialization, development and education of personality. At the present stage of development of education the problem of increasing the number of children with behavioral disorders and, accordingly, the problem of preventing and overcoming school non-adaptation, manifested in low performance, deviations from norms of behavior, difficulties in relationships with others. Central in the correctional education of schoolchildren is the optimization of children's activities. The method of fairy tale therapy allows solving a number of problems that arise in children of different ages. The process of fairy tale therapy allows the child to actualize and realize their problems, as well as see different ways to solve them.
This third edition of Current Approaches in Drama Therapy offers a revised and updated comprehensive compilation of the primary drama therapy methods and models that are being utilized and taught in the United States and Canada. Two new approaches have been added, Insight Improvisation by Joel Gluck, and the Miss Kendra Program by David Read Johnson, Nisha Sajnani, Christine Mayor, and Cat Davis, as well as an established but not previously recognized approach in the field, Autobiographical Therapeutic Performance, by Susana Pendzik. The book begins with an updated chapter on the development of the profession of drama therapy in North America, followed by a chapter on the current state of the field written by the editors and Jason Butler. Section II includes the 13 drama therapy approaches, and Section III includes the three related disciplines of Psychodrama and Sociodrama, Playback Theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed that have been particularly influential to drama therapists. This highly informative and indispensable volume is structured for drama therapy training programs. It will continue to be useful as a basic text of drama therapy for both students and seasoned practitioners, including mental health professionals (such as counselors, clinical social workers, psychologists, creative arts therapists, occupational therapists), theater and drama teachers, school counselors, and organizational development consultants.
The Routledge International Handbook of Therapeutic Stories and Storytelling is a unique book that explores stories from an educational, community, social, health, therapeutic and therapy perspectives, acknowledging a range of diverse social and cultural views in which stories are used and written by esteemed storytellers, artists, therapists and academics from around the globe. The book is divided into five main sections that examine different approaches and contexts for therapeutic stories and storytelling. The collected authors explore storytelling as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in education, social and community settings, and in health and therapeutic contexts. The final section offers an International Story Anthology written by co-editor Sharon Jacksties and a final story by Katja Gorečan. This book is of enormous importance to psychotherapists and related mental health professionals, as well as academics, storytellers, teachers, people working in special educational needs, and all those with an interest in storytelling and its applied value.
